


Airport Stranger

by kookitykook



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: If you're into that kind of thing, One Shot, Reader-Insert, actually i dont thats funny as hell dont @ me, airport shenanigans ensue, also there's lots of stupid nicknames??, an alcoholic chinchilla named chimmy to be more specific, and a chinchilla named chimmy, anyways pls read for chimmy he needs help, but maybe i'll do a follow up if people ever actually like this, i giggled the whole time writing this, i love them, i wish i were joking, if you love seokjin's laugh this is the fic for you, jin is laughing pretty much the whole time and that should be enough incentive to read it, jins dorkiness really pops off in this one, my man and his broad shoulders out here be wooing strangers in airports, strangers to friends to smitten dorks, that's the fic, this is so fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 02:36:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kookitykook/pseuds/kookitykook
Summary: Your flight home for Thanksgiving has been delayed for the umpteenth time, prompting quite the embarrassing call from your mother in the airport waiting area. Lucky for you, the man sitting next to you thinks it's hilarious. And lucky for him, you think his laugh is adorable. Airport hijinks and off-the-chart levels of dorkiness ensue.





	Airport Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The insane amount of hours I've had to spend in airports the past few months inspired this. Where the hell is my cute stranger helping me get an upgrade to first class?
> 
> Hope you enjoy!  
> ~kookitykook

“Yeah I know, Mom. I _know_ , alright? But there’s literally nothing I can do about a delayed flight, alright?” Pinching the bridge of your nose in between your thumb and forefinger, you let out a long-suffering sigh that you had been saving up for Thanksgiving dinner with your family. Alas, the suffering decided to come early this year. “Look, unless they delay again, I should be boarding in about fifteen minutes. That’ll have me landing around midnight. Can you still pick me up or … ah, that’s what I thought. No, no, it’s fine. I’ll just get a cab. … Mom, I’ll be fine. … No I don’t have a taser or pepper spray, I can’t just put that stuff in my carry on!”

Suddenly there was a sharp laugh from the guy sitting beside you. You whipped your head to look at him just one seat over. He had the audacity to look right at you as he chuckled, making it obvious he was laughing at _your_ predicament.

Feeling your cheeks reddening, you covered your face with one hand, shifting in the uncomfortable waiting area seat so that your back was to the man you hadn’t bothered to look at too closely beyond his amused expression.

“Mom, I’ve gotta go,” you whispered. “Look I’ll text you when I get in the cab, and I know where the spare key is so I’ll just — no, _Mom,_ nobody is going to follow me to our house for the sake of stealing our spare key! And it’s not like underneath the creepy gnome on the front porch is exactly a prime hiding place!”

At that, the man that was laughing before started to laugh _even harder_ , and you couldn’t help but shift to get a good look at him. He was practically cackling at the one-sided conversation he was hearing, and his windshield-wiper sounding laugh was attracting more attention from the other delayed passengers. He caught your eye and then, like an old man despite the fact that he looked around your age, he literally slapped his knee in amusement.

You couldn’t help but smile at the man even though your overbearing mother was still nagging away on the other end of the line. He was quite tall and slender save for his broad shoulders, which were evident even underneath his large hoody. The hood was pulled up, but you could still see smooth, shiny black hair peeking out. The two of you oddly matched, both wearing comfortable outfits — him with his red hoody and joggers, and you with leggings and an oversized maroon sweater from your college days.

The shouting of your name pulled you from your shameless staring and smiling at your laughing neighbor. You couldn’t help but jump in your seat as your mother’s shriek reached quite the high decibel.

“Yeah, _yes_ , Mom I’m still listening. Look I have to go now, I’ll text you when I land, but for now I’m going on airplane mode, _bye_!” Your last words were hurried, ignoring your mother’s objections and pressing the bright red ‘end call’ button — your favorite button, truly — and quickly switching your phone to airplane mode before receiving an angry return call.

At this point, the man’s laughter had quieted down and the other irritated, delayed passengers in the waiting area had looked away from his outburst, but he was still looking at you with an amused grin.

 _Woah, nice smile,_ you thought to yourself, taking in the twinkling in his eyes and his annoyingly perfect teeth.

“I’ll have you know,” the man said suddenly, making your eyes widen at his boldness to talk to a stranger, “that the last place I would look for someone’s spare key is underneath a creepy gnome.”

You blinked. Once. Twice. Then you promptly burst into laughter yourself. The man joined you immediately, and you were too tired from all of the travel and your frightening lack of caffeine to care that the two of you were undoubtedly annoying everyone else in the waiting area.

“For the love of all that is good in the world,” you gasped in between chuckles as you both started to come down from your giggle highs, “don’t _ever_ tell my mother that you approve of one of her crazy ideas.”

“Noted,” the man gasped himself, a hand over his chest as he caught his breath. A few seconds passed and you both smiled at each other once again before he reached out across the empty seat between you. “I’m Jin.”

You accepted his handshake with a smile more genuine than anything you had felt in … far too long. “I’m Y/N. Thanks for the laughs, Jin. That rarely happens after talking with my mother, and it was … definitely needed.”

Jin chuckled softly, nodding in understanding. “I get it. Being with family around the holidays usually ends in laughter or tears, sometimes you just have to go with the former. Especially after a six hour delayed flight.”

“That’s the truth,” you mumbled under your breath, gaining another chuckle from Jin as you rolled your eyes quite dramatically. “I don’t know why I thought traveling the day before Thanksgiving was a good idea, and now here we are.”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you were doing your best to avoid any extra time at home, even if it meant risking traveling on one of the worst days of the year?” Jin raised his eyebrow knowingly.

“Alright look here, Mr. Psychic Stranger, I don’t need you psychoanalyzing me. I’m fragile from all of the gnome talk.”

Jin laughed yet again and _damn_ , his laugh was the cutest thing you’d ever heard.

“Is that why you’re here on hell night?” you asked, eyebrow cocked.

Jin shook his head, still grinning. “No, I actually had to work up until today, so this was my only option.”

Your eyes widened. “Woah. What do you do?”

“Music production. Well, kind of. I’ve moved from unpaid intern to paid _very little_ intern for a production company, so things are really looking up for me.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners adorably as you barked quite the unattractive laugh at that statement. It was wild how comfortable you felt with this total stranger on what had been undoubtedly one of the worst travel days ever.

“Congratulations,” you finally managed to say, finding yourself leaning over the seat separating them quite a lot. You cleared your throat, sitting up straighter and pushing back the stray hairs that had fallen from your ponytail. Jin’s eyes tracked the movement, something you did not fail to notice.

“What about you?” Jin asked, his voice kind. “What do you do that I’m sure your mother is _very_ proud of?”

You did laugh at that, covering your mouth to stifle the sound. “Oh yes, my mother is _beyond_ proud of her barista daughter who has had her life’s work rejected by not one, not two, but _three_ book publishers.”

“You’re a writer?” Jin asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. You blinked at his reaction. Did you not just say that you were rejected by three publishers? “Woah, that’s so cool.”

“Uh, I’m trying to be,” you said nervously, pulling the sleeves of your sweater over your hands and piddling with the tattered material. “Like I said, rejected and all that.”

“Well that just means you haven’t found the right publisher yet!” Jin said, and it was the fact that you could literally _hear_ the smile in his voice that you were able to look back over at him. Unlike yourself, Jin was shameless in how much he was leaning towards you, making it quite obvious that he wanted to continue talking. “What’s your book about?”

Oh no. The dreaded question. You hated when people asked this question, it was always so awkward to talk about your work instead of just showing someone. But Jin’s big eyes and pouty lips — still smiling adorably of course — made you think that he was one of those rare, special people that didn’t really deal in awkward situations.

You smiled, averting your eyes away from his for the briefest second because it was as if his smile was the literal sun or something, when suddenly —

“ _Passengers of flight 403 to Newark, we regret to inform you that your flight has been delayed until 10:50 PM. The airline would like to express its sincerest apologies and—_ ”

The rest of the airline worker’s voice was drowned out as the entire waiting area groaned, people fishing out their phones to contact their families yet again. All except you, who was pointedly _not_ calling your mother again, and Jin, who oddly looked … pleased at this turn of events.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you muttered, rubbing your tired face and briefly noting in the back of your mind that you probably looked a mess in front of Jin. You hadn’t showered in over twenty-four hours, hadn’t brushed your hair or teeth in about twelve, and you could feel that your pores were practically the size of Jupiter. Jin was a stranger that you would probably never see again, but still … a cute stranger. You pulled your hands away from your oily face to glance over at said stranger.

He was looking right at you with the dopiest smile. You hesitated, narrowing your eyes at him.

“What?”

Suddenly Jin stood up and _woah_ , he was really tall. You had an inkling too that he was probably quite built underneath his comfy clothes. With a grin, he moved to stand in front of you. His hood had fallen all the way back now, and his hair looked soft and shiny even underneath the terrible airport lights.

“Come on,” he said brightly, meeting your eyes without any hesitation. “We’ve got another two hours, and I have it on good authority that there is some absolutely terrible free coffee on the other side of the terminal.”

You raised an eyebrow. This whole situation was … new.

“Why would I want terrible coffee?” you asked, your voice taking on a note of teasing as you crossed your arms and settled further back into your seat.

“Ah, good question,” he responded with a grin, eyes brighter than a starry sky. “Because terrible coffee is factually proven to be better than no coffee.”

“Factually proven?”

“Yes of course. There was some fancy Ivy League study done on this subject somewhere surely maybe sometime.”

“Somewhere surely maybe sometime?”

“Sí. ”

You broke with that, laughing yet again and covering your face with your hand, sweater sleeve still pulled over your fingertips. When you finally looked back up, Jin was looking down at you with what could only be described as the most smitten expression.

“Not to mention,” Jin continued, “the walk to this terrible wonderful coffee will give you the chance to tell me all about your book.”

You chewed absentmindedly on your bottom lip, noting in the back of your mind that your lips were quite obviously chapped.

Jin looked so … _genuine_. That was the only word you could think to describe him as. Genuine. He really wanted to hear about your book, and get terrible coffee with you when you were just a stranger that he overheard having an embarrassing conversation with their mother.

With a huff and a grin, you stood to your full height, ignoring your popping knees in favor of staring at Jin’s full lips smiling impossibly wider.

“Alright then, Kind Stranger Jin,” you said as you swung your backpack over your shoulders. “Let’s go.”

**

An hour and a half later, you knew you were in deep trouble. In the back of your mind, you had been somewhat hoping that Jin would turn out to be kind of creepy or awkward or weird so that you would have an easier time not falling for the stranger. But no, he had to go and be … well, practically perfect.

Not actually perfect, of course. Jin laughed way too loud and did not care at all about disturbing anyone else with said laugh. He was clumsy, and tripped three times just walking across the terminal. He had terrible taste in coffee and made slurping noises when he drank. So definitely not perfect.

But also … he was _perfect_. Kind, attentive, well-spoken, and hands down the funniest person you had ever met. He listened to a bare-bones description of your book with not a trace of judgment, and he even asked good questions about the characters you loved so much. He listened to you vent about your mother and made good-natured jokes to soothe your stress without being insensitive.

He was damn perfect and quite frankly it was pissing you off because you were never going to see him again once you each went your own ways after the flight. This wasn’t a Hallmark movie.

The two of you were making your way back across to the terminal where you would hopefully, _finally_ be boarding in half an hour when Jin sighed quite dramatically all of a sudden, making you chuckle and a few passerby look at you oddly. You found yourself adopting Jin’s attitude and not caring at all.

“What was that sigh for?” You asked, nudging his arm with your shoulder — he was so _tall_ compared to you.

“I hope we get delayed again.”

You practically guffawed at that, almost tripping yourself when you looked up at him in disbelief.

“What?” You asked, heart stuttering as he lightly touched your lower back to help steady you. “Don’t speak that into the universe! Besides, I thought you were excited to see your friends!”

Jin had explained over the terrible coffee that his family was still in Korea and his paid-very-little-internship didn’t exactly allow a budget for traveling to see them for both Thanksgiving and Christmas (and Korean Thanksgiving didn’t even fall at the same time as it did in the States that year anyways), so he was saving that big trip for Christmas.

Instead, Jin would be spending Thanksgiving with a group of his friends from college. He had described them all in detail quite enthusiastically, but you had already forgotten their names because you _might_ have been too busy staring at his bright smile the entire time he had been talking about them. All you remembered was that one of them had a bunny smile (whatever that meant), one would probably be president one day, and one pretended to be grumpy with no soul but was actually quite the opposite. They had all sounded wonderful though, and were all annoyingly attractive in the photo he had shown you on his phone.

Of _course_ he had cute friends, too.

“I do want to see my friends,” Jin said quickly. “For sure, they’re my brothers and I miss them, but …”

“But what?” You asked, slowing your stride as your gate came into view. “Don’t tell me. They have a gnome on their front porch, too.”

You expected another loud laugh from Jin at that, but all you got was a low chuckle and him slowing down even more than you had.

“No, Namjoon has a firm no-gnome policy.” For the first time in the past almost two hours, Jin’s whole self wasn’t in the joke. “I just … I’ve really enjoyed talking to you.” Your heart did an unwelcome flip-flop. “I don’t really want this to end.”

You swallowed and licked your chapped lips, and it was only then that you realized you had come to a complete stop. Your gate was in eyeshot, but you and this former stranger who was now the oddest sort of friend as if you’d known him your entire life, were staring at one another.

“I don’t either,” you admitted, unable to tear your eyes away from Jin’s. “I … Jin, actually I— _oof_!”

“Oh my goodness I am so sorry!”

Jin barely caught you by the arms as a flight attendant ran into you and shoved you forward into him. Your chests were flush against each other and Jin’s hands were quick to keep you upright.

“Are you alright?” The flight attendant asked you worriedly. “I really am so, so sorry, ma’am.”

“It’s okay,” you said with a smile, noting in the back of your mind that Jin was still holding you tightly to him even as you turned your head to the side to address the young woman. “You didn’t mean any harm. Thanksgiving has got to be rough for you guys, it’s really okay.”

The flight attendant released an audible sigh, clearly relieved that she wasn’t about to be yelled at or reported to her airline or something else awful a disgruntled flyer might do.

“I know I’m not supposed to say this, but … Thanksgiving is the _worst_ ,” the attendant simply said. Jin and you both chuckled at that. “I’m really sorry again, I hope you two have a good holiday!”

With that, the attendant turned on her heel and rushed away. You watched her go with a sad smile, you couldn’t imagine working for an airline on Thanksgiving.

It was Jin’s hand gently squeezing your arm that had you turning back to him.

_Oh, right. Jin is holding me. Sweet Jin that I just met and really like and he seems to like me, too. Right. Right._

“What were you about to say?” Jin asked softly, his hands still holding you practically flush against him. Your breath caught as his thumbs swept over the sleeve of your sweater, an oddly moving gesture of comfort.

“I …”

Over your shoulder right at that moment you heard that same flight attendant from before speaking just loud enough to hear.

 _“Hi, I’m here to takeover for you guys! … Okay, so twelve economy’s and one premium seat has opened? … Oh, two premium seats, got it. Have you updated the manifest?_ ”

“Y/N?”

Jin’s voice snapped your attention back to him. You had been staring at his face, but listening to the flight attendant.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jin asked once again, seemingly worried now.

“I …” He was staring at you expectantly, face starting to fall right as you turned your head to look over your shoulder and — yepp, sure enough, the flight attendant was at _your_ gate.

With a wicked grin, you spun back around to face Jin so fast he jumped.

“I have an idea,” you said quickly.

“An idea?” he repeated, cocking his head to the side like the cutest, most confused puppy you had ever seen. “What do you — hey!”

As quick as you could, you grabbed one of Jin’s hands in your own, lacing your fingers together tightly as you pulled him into a run towards the gate desk.

“ _Woah,_ what are you—”

“Hi!” You said brightly, pulling yourself and Jin right up to the gate desk where the flight attendant from before was now standing. The attendant looked up and smiled back when she saw who it was. Not missing a beat, you placed your and Jin’s linked hands in the attendant’s sight.

“Oh, hello again,” the attendant said. “Are you two on this flight?”

“We are indeed,” you replied, squeezing Jin’s hand as you felt him staring down at you in confusion. “My fiancee and I have been here _all night_ with these delays trying to get home for the holidays.”

Jin squeaked and you just pulled him even closer to you, kicking him in the ankle to keep him quiet.

“Fiancee!” He shouted in affirmation, making the attendant jump and you bite your lip to keep from sighing. “Yepp, fiancee, this is she. I’m quite excited about it. You know I had to ask her twelve times before she said yes.”

The attendant’s eyes bugged out of her head.

“He’s joking,” you said quickly. “I only turned him down six times.”

“I fail to see why you never count the time I proposed underwater. Just because you got bit by a shark while scuba diving in the Maldives does not make that trip any less romantic!”

 _This guy is an absolute moron_ , you thought to yourself, trying and failing not to let your laughter show. Fortunately for you and Jin, the flight attendant was laughing outright.

“You two are adorable!” She said with a bright grin. “I’m so sorry you’ve been delayed as long as you have.”

“Us, too,” you said with a pout. “We understand though, everyone here is just doing their jobs and we respect that. We did want to ask though, do you think we’ll be boarding soon? If we’re going to get delayed again, I would rather just call it quits and book a hotel tonight.”

“Which I wouldn’t be opposed to of course,” Jin said quickly, making you look up at him with a glare. “It’s our anniversary, _honeybuns_ , and we’ve had to spend it in the airport after all.”

 _Oh you clever idiot,_ you thought, smiling up at him.

“Well yes of course, _lovebug_ , but I know you want to get to your sister’s house soon, the baby is due any minute.”

“That’s true, _potato wedge_ , and she did promise that if I was there for the birth she would name my nephew after me.”

In sync, you and Jin both turned to look at the attendant again, who looked more confused than she had probably ever been in her life. You both smiled sweetly.

“So could you possibly tell us if we’ll actually be boarding this time around?” You asked, giving your most award-winning, prize smile.

“Actually…” the attendant glanced around quickly before leaning in. You and Jin followed suit, shoulders touching. “I just got a call from the pilot, and you all are one-hundred percent boarding in the next ten minutes.”

A breath of pure relief spilled out of you, and it wasn’t for show when you squeezed Jin’s hand tightly.

“Thank you so much,” you said to the attendant. Then you turned and looked up at Jin, not having to use any of your meager acting skills to look smitten with him. “Just four hours and then we’re home, _hotcakes_. You’ll have to try and survive not sitting next to me that whole time.”

“You’re not sitting with your fiancee?” The flight attendant asked incredulously. You turned to look at her with big eyes, and you saw Jin pouting dramatically in your periphery.

“No, we booked these flights last minute and there weren’t any seats together. We tried to upgrade to business class, but it just wasn’t in our budget this year, you know?”

“That’s because all of the vet bills really piled up this year,” Jin said offhandedly. You pursed your lips together tightly to keep from sighing or laughing — you weren’t sure which. Jin met the attendant’s curious gaze. “Oh, you see our chinchilla Chimmy has cancer. Yepp, in the liver. We think he may have gotten into our alcohol stash one too many times. Alcohol addiction is often hereditary in chinchillas, you know. Chimmy’s father was a deadbeat, so we think that’s where he got it from.”

The attendant blinked while you bit down on your lip so hard it almost hurt. You were falling head over heels for this complete and total _moron_.

“Anywho,” Jin continued, looking down at you without breaking character for one single second. “We should leave this kind worker to her duties now, _lava lamp_. Thank you again, ma’am, and happy Thanksgiving!”

“You know what,” the attendant suddenly said, calling the two of you back as you started to turn away. “Look, I’m not really supposed to do this, but … you two are a really cute and … _eccentric_ couple, and you were so nice earlier when I ran into you. Two first class seats beside each other just opened up and if you two wanted, I could upgrade you.”

Jin’s expression of surprise was way more believable than yours, but the attendant still beamed at your reactions.

“Really?” Jin exclaimed. “Wow, that would be so great. I would lose my head if it weren’t for this girl, we would really appreciate that!”

“Yes, thank you so much!” You echoed as the attendant told you and Jin that it was her pleasure and began typing away at her computer. A few seconds passed and then you were each being printed new boarding passes.

“You are the best, Lana,” Jin said, accepting their new passes and reading the attendant’s nametag. “We will be giving you the _best_ review on your company’s website.”

“It’s no problem, really. You guys will be boarding with Zone A in about ten minutes!”

“Thank you!” You said once more, waving at Lana as Jin unlinked your hands so that he could sling his arm over your shoulder and lead you over to a pair of open seats at the very back of the waiting area.

The two of you sat down and were silent for about three seconds before promptly doubling over in barely contained laughter. You were clutching your stomach as Jin wiped at his eyes, your antics drawing the eyes of everyone else in your section.

“Shhh, shhh,” Jin gasped. “If she hears us we might get outed!”

You clapped a hand over your mouth, sitting up straight to look at Jin, which only made the pair of you dissolve into even more giggles.

“Oh … oh my gosh,” you gasped, leaning back in your seat to realize that Jin’s arm was over your shoulders once again. You didn’t mind. “I can’t believe that actually worked!”

“You are the most brilliant fiancee in all the land, and that’s a fact.”

“And you!” You poked him in the chest, which he looked positively affronted by. “You’re _insane_! Bitten by a shark in the Maldives? Chinchilla alcoholism? You called me potato wedge!”

“And lava lamp, don’t forget lava lamp.”

That only had you laughing yet again, your chest practically on fire with glee and affection for this insane man that you met only a couple hours prior.

It was a few seconds later that you realized Jin wasn’t laughing anymore. You looked up, cheeks hurting from smiling so much, to see him looking down at you with an expression that could only be described as fondness and affection.

“Where have you been all my life?” he murmured softly.

You stilled. “I think I’ve been waiting for you.”

The air went taut between you, both of your gazes flickering down to the other’s mouth. Just as you started to lean in …

“Do you think your mom would like me?”

You froze, looking up at Jin in confusion. “Um … you know I’ll be honest, that was not what I was expecting to happen just then.”

“It’s just, you know how I said Namjoon has a strict no-gnome policy? This means that when I get to his house in about five hours, there will be no spare key underneath a porch gnome. And he and the other guys sleep like the dead, so I’ll probably end up sleeping on the gnome-less porch because no one will let me in. And it’s so cold outside and I’m too pretty to get pneumonia, let’s be honest. So really you ought to invite me to your mom’s house tonight and then I will repay you the favor by inviting you over to my buddy’s house for Thanksgiving evening to help you escape. But this all will only work if your mother likes me, _so —_ do you think your mom would like me?”

You were painfully aware that you probably looked like a complete idiot staring up at Jin with your mouth open and eyes drawn together, only inches from his face. You were also painfully aware that he was still looking at you with that smitten expression that you just couldn’t get over.

“Honestly?” You finally said, chuckling and choosing to accept the insanity that was Kim Seokjin. “She’ll adore you.”

“Perfect.”

Before anything else could be said, Jin tilted his head down and pressed his full lips firmly to yours. You positively melted at the contact, sighing into his mouth and relaxing into his hold.

The kiss didn’t last long, but it was the sweetest either of you had ever had.

You and Jin breathed each other in, no longer kissing but lips close enough to feel the other smile.

“Do you think your friends will like me?” You asked, out of breath from sheer proximity to this wonderful man.

“Oh they’ll probably all fall in love with you,” Jin said with a nod, his hands coming up to cradle your cheeks. He kissed you lightly once more. “I have a feeling I’m going to, too.”

_“Attention passengers, first class zone A is now boarding, first class zone A is now boarding.”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thanks for reading friend, I hope you enjoyed it. Kudos and comments are always very much appreciated. I hope you have a lovely, lovely day.  
> ~kookitykook


End file.
